Quick summary

Crowd links help build a link profile and bring real, live traffic from discussions. For crowd marketing to work, platforms, context, and the quality of answers matter much more than volume done just for reporting.

We’ll break down how crowd links work for SEO, where to place links from forums and review sites, how to choose anchors, and how to measure results.

Who should read this article:

• SEO specialists and marketers. If you want to safely diversify your link profile and strengthen brand signals.
• Website owners and e‑commerce businesses. If reviews, reputation, and traffic from discussions matter to you.
• Agencies and freelancers. If you offer crowd marketing as a service and need quality control.

Crowd links, or natural links, are URLs organically embedded in reviews, comments, and other mentions of a company on platforms where its target audience is present.

In other words, these are natural mentions of a product or service on open platforms — social networks, forums, or review websites.

What it can look like:

1. A person leaves a forum review after a purchase and includes a link to the product.
2. While discussing a service, they recommend a specialist to other users and add a link in the text.
3. They share a link to a recipe or a step‑by‑step guide hosted on the promoted website.

What changed by 2026: crowd links, UGC, and anti‑spam

Search engines have strengthened their fight against low‑quality content and spam. Template comments and mass placements now bring less benefit and are more often deleted.

Stricter attitude toward scaling for rankings.

In 2024, Google rolled out updates after which it started taking content and publications created in large volumes solely for rankings much more seriously.

Tougher rules for UGC.

On forums and in comments, links are more often marked as nofollow or rel=ugc. But this doesn’t make crowd marketing useless: it still works through clicks, brand mentions, and natural profile diversity.

More moderation and restrictions.

Review sites and Q&A platforms more often require verification, remove direct advertising, and block new accounts that post links without any history.

FAQ for this section

Can crowd links be considered safe link building?

Safety depends on quality. A helpful answer on a relevant platform usually passes without issues. Mass identical comments with links are more often seen as spam.

Should links in comments be avoided because of anti‑spam filters?

No. It’s better to vary the format: sometimes add a URL, sometimes mention the brand, and sometimes share a link to a helpful reference that’s relevant to the topic.

What’s more important: the link or its text?

Most often, the answer and context matter more. If the message is useless, moderators will remove the link, and users won’t click it anyway.

How Crowd Links Help Businesses: SEO and Crowd Marketing Goals

The main goal of crowd links is to increase a website’s citation frequency and visibility in search results, as well as to diversify the link profile and reduce risks associated with placing other types of links to the site.

How this works for SEO tasks:

Growth in visibility and TOP positions for key queries and topics.

When one website mentions another using an anchor, the mentioned site can improve its rankings for the target query.

Increase in the site’s link mass.

A site’s authority grows as the number of backlinks pointing to it increases.

Natural signals.

Search engines do not penalize links from discussions by themselves, but they do penalize spam and link schemes. That’s why a relevant platform, useful content, and the absence of templates are so important.

As a side effect, crowd links can also solve some marketing tasks:

Handling negative reviews or objections.

If there are critical comments about a product or service, recommendations with links can help improve the situation.

Increasing brand awareness online and trust from the target audience.

The more people talk about you, the more potential users become familiar with your brand.

Building a positive online reputation.

Regular updates of positive reviews increase audience loyalty and trust in your brand.

Who crowd link promotion is not suitable for

Crowd marketing works well for those who are ready to focus on quality and don’t expect results in just a few days. However, there are situations where crowd links have a weak effect:

Websites with a weak link profile.

It’s hard to significantly increase a site’s authority using only backlinks from forums and review platforms.

Highly niche businesses.

The resources spent searching for very specific platforms and forums are often much higher than the actual results of promotion.

Businesses oriented toward other companies (B2B).

With a caveat — such companies can be promoted on specialized resources where other business representatives are active.

Businesses focused on selling everyday goods.

In these cases, users usually don’t spend time searching for information. For example, no one looks up where to buy bread or milk on the way home.

FAQ for this section

Do crowd links pass link equity and improve rankings?

Sometimes yes, but more often links in UGC are marked as nofollow or rel=ugc. In that case, the main effect comes through traffic, brand mentions, and a more natural link profile.

Can crowd marketing alone cover the entire link-building strategy?

Rarely. Crowd works best as part of a broader strategy together with content, PR, directories, and partner placements.

Does crowd marketing help with reputation?

Yes, if you respond constructively and don’t argue with users. For reputation, the tone of communication and factual accuracy are more important than the link itself.

How to Place Crowd Links: A Step‑by‑Step Plan

Start with platforms where your audience is present and there are real, active discussions. Then set up your profiles properly: avatar, description, posting history. Accounts without activity lose links more often, and their profiles are more likely to get blocked.

If you need a large number of placements, manual work quickly becomes expensive. In this case, people involve specialists, services, or agencies: they select platforms, prepare texts according to each site’s rules, and compile reports.

Algorithm for placing a crowd link:

1. Choose a product and a landing page that answers your audience’s question.
2. Find a topic where the link will be appropriate and read the platform’s rules.
3. Write a helpful reply and add the link as a source or an example of a solution.
4. Record the placement in a table: date, donor page URL, thread URL, anchor type, publication status.

For link characteristics there are several nuances to keep in mind.

Nofollow and Dofollow

Dofollow links can have a stronger impact on rankings, but in comments and forums links are usually closed with nofollow and rel=ugc attributes.

For Google, nofollow has long worked as a hint rather than a strict prohibition. At the same time, a closed link can still bring traffic and send a signal to the search engine about a brand or page mention.

Anchored and Non‑Anchored Crowd Links

There is no strict “correct” ratio between anchored and non‑anchored links, but it’s better when non‑anchored links prevail.

Anchors should consist of one to three words, match the topic of the donor page and the promoted site, and not look like advertising. Exact‑match keywords are better avoided — change word forms, add prepositions.

Bad anchor: buy a cheap computer in an online store

Good anchor: I bought a computer here

Non‑anchored links come in several types:

• Without text — just a plain URL;
• With text as the site name — pr-cy.io;
• With the brand name — PR‑CY;
• With words like here, here’s the link, on the site;
• Links from images.

Pay attention to the surrounding text — a couple of sentences before and after the link. It should harmonize with the anchor and look meaningful overall.

FAQ for this section

Is it worth aiming for dofollow links in crowd marketing?

If a platform allows open links and this doesn’t violate its rules, that’s a plus. But dofollow shouldn’t be the main goal: relevance of the topic and a live discussion are more important.

Which anchors are most often removed by moderators?

Commercial phrases with exact keywords, identical wording, and calls to buy. Non‑anchored and branded options usually pass more easily.

Can you place the same link in different threads?

Yes, if the context is different and the link genuinely answers the question. Repeating the same text across dozens of threads usually looks like spam.

How Many Crowd Links Do You Need Per Month

We recommend analyzing the link profiles of successful competitors and using them as a benchmark.

• Start with a pace you can easily maintain. It’s better to have 5–15 useful placements per month than 100 identical messages that will get deleted.
• Compare yourself with competitors. Look at where and how they are mentioned: the types of platforms, topics, and anchor formats.
• Focus on quality, not just numbers. Take into account clicks, discussions, thread indexation, and user behavior on the landing page.

FAQ for this section

How many crowd links does a new website need?

For a new project, you can start with the first 10–30 high‑quality mentions on relevant resources. Then see how platforms respond to the accounts and links.

Can a sudden spike in links be harmful?

The risk is usually related not to speed, but to quality: identical texts, one type of donor, new accounts with no history. If the spike is driven by an event and real discussions, it looks much more natural.

Does it make sense to buy packages of 100–300 links?

If you choose a package, ask for a list of platforms in advance, different text scenarios, and a transparent report for each placement.

Where to Place Crowd Links: Forums, Review Sites, Q&A Platforms, and Communities

Links are usually placed on websites where users actively communicate in comments and discussions.

Forums Related to Your Niche

Pros of forums:

• A post or comment with a link is more likely to pass moderation, because users often share links there;
• As a nice bonus, you can get real traffic from live users.

Cons of forums:

• Posts from new forum users may be banned;
• You need additional participation in other discussions to look natural;
• There are fewer active forums now — part of the discussions has moved to communities.

Review Sites

Users publish reviews of products and services there.

Pros of review sites:

• Strong influence on a consumer’s purchasing decision;
• Popular review platforms are high‑quality link donors.

Cons of review sites:

• Popular platforms often require proof of an actual purchase of the product or service;
• Adding links in reviews is prohibited on most sites.

Question & Answer Services

These include platforms where your audience communicates.

Pros of Q&A services:

• Well‑written answers with links are usually not removed.

Cons of Q&A services:

• A limited number of such platforms;
• Links published there are often non‑clickable.

Other Platforms

• Comments under popular articles in your niche;
• Social networks;
• Niche and author blogs.

FAQ for this section

Where do crowd links generate the most traffic?

Usually where there is an active audience and topics stay alive for weeks: niche forums, article comments, and question sections related to your niche.

What should you do if a platform prohibits direct links?

Provide a helpful, relevant answer and mention the brand or website name without a URL. This often passes moderation and still leads users to search for the brand.

Are social networks suitable for crowd marketing?

Yes, if reach and clicks are important to you. For SEO effects, social networks are less predictable due to limited indexation and link attributes.

Who to Turn to for Crowd Links: Services, Exchanges, Freelancers

Crowd specialists and dedicated services

Pros: platform selection, copywriting, a wide choice of regions and niches, guarantees.

Crowd‑link exchanges

Pros: price. Cons: no one is really responsible for quality.

Freelancers

They maintain conversations on forums, add comments, and leave reviews on various platforms.

What to request in the report to keep quality under control

• List of platforms in advance: topic, region, link rules, examples of live threads.
• Placement links: thread URL, profile URL, screenshot in case the post gets deleted.
• Format and status: anchor type, link visibility, publication status, indexation status.

FAQ for this section

Is a crowd‑link exchange suitable for ongoing promotion?

Yes, if you monitor quality: check platforms, texts, and placement stability. Without control, exchanges often don’t deliver results.

How can you quickly tell that a contractor is doing a poor job?

Reports show lots of irrelevant topics, repeated texts, brand‑new accounts, and placements that get removed within the first few days.

Should you require only dofollow links?

No. Dofollow is nice, but the quality of the discussion and the relevance of the platform matter more.

Example of a Crowd Link: How to Write a Good Comment

When writing any comment, it’s important to understand who you’re writing for. The most important thing in your text is the value it brings to the reader.

7 tips for creating a useful comment

1. Identify what question the topic author is trying to solve and what matters to them.
2. Give a specific answer: steps, selection criteria, warnings.
3. Write in the style of the platform and avoid promotional wording.
4. Check grammar and facts.
5. Add details that increase trust: timelines, conditions, limitations, personal experience without unnecessary details.
6. Add a link to material that expands your answer: a checklist, instructions, a curated list.
7. Integrate the link so that it doesn’t harm the meaning of the message.

FAQ for this section

Which comments are most often removed?

Short promotional texts with no value, especially from a new account.

Do you always need to add a link?

No. Sometimes it’s better to post a helpful answer without a link and add it later in another topic where it fits better.

Can you use the same text template everywhere?

No, because different platforms require different types of content. Also, template-style answers reduce readers’ trust.

How to Evaluate the Results of Crowd Links: Metrics and Timelines

Crowd marketing rarely delivers a noticeable effect within a week. In most cases, the first conclusions are drawn after 4–8 weeks: by that time, threads have time to get indexed, you receive clicks, and you can see changes in branded search queries.

Metrics to track:

• Growth in website traffic.
• Improvement in rankings of the promoted page in search results.
• Increase in website visibility for target keywords.
• Referral traffic and conversions. Review visits from specific threads and user behavior on the page.
• Branded queries. If people start searching for your brand name more often, crowd marketing is already boosting brand awareness.
• Stability of placements. Some links are removed after a week or a month. This reflects the quality of the platforms and the accounts used.

FAQ for this section

Which metrics are more important: rankings or traffic?

It depends on your goal. For sales, traffic and conversions matter more. For informational projects, visibility and growth in the number of queries you cover are more important.

How can you tell if the placement page has been indexed?

Check the indexing of the donor page and the presence of the thread in search results—not just the fact that it was published. Different platforms take different amounts of time.

Do you need to use UTM tags?

Yes, if the platform does not remove these parameters. UTM tags help connect traffic to a specific placement and compare the quality of different platforms.

Common Mistakes in Crowd Marketing When Placing Crowd Links

1. Incorrect target audience definition.

To promote with natural links, it’s important to really understand your audience: who they are, where they’re located, and what their needs are. Even if you’re not aiming for traffic, links should look organic on the platforms where they’re placed.

2. Using irrelevant platforms.

Links from resources that are not thematically related to yours will be useless at best.

3. Direct advertising.

First, advertising messages don’t look like recommendations, so people won’t trust them. Second, in the best-case scenario, a platform moderator will delete your post and you won’t get the desired result.

4. Too many anchors.

Even worse — identical anchors. Remember, we write for people. When you send a link to a friend, do you insert it with a keyword anchor?

5. Excess of similar comments.

On forums, moderators can see all the comments you leave. If they are the same and include a link to the same resource, it will quickly raise suspicion.

6. Weak landing page.

Even good crowd marketing won’t work if the page doesn’t answer the question from the thread: no price, no terms, no examples, no instructions, or no clear structure.

Checklist Before Placing a Link

• The topic matches your page. Don’t add a link where it’s not needed.
• The answer is useful even without the link. If you remove the URL, the message should still be meaningful and helpful.
• The account looks alive. It has a profile, message history, and other comments.